Vitamin Water ‘Makes Boring Brilliant’ Through Twitter

When I first saw Vitamin Water’s #MakeBoringBrilliant billboard towering over my nearest interstate on-ramp, I have to say, I didn’t get it. I’m not really one to search my Twitter app for hashtags while driving, so the company’s message just lingered in the back of my mind as an annoyance more than anything else.

Then, the business branding/social media marketing blogger in me had the sense to take a deeper look into this campaign. Here’s what I found…

#MakeBoringBrilliant: Personal Connection

Vitamin Water is forging strong personal connections with fans through the #MakeBoringBrilliant campaign. Billboards, subway ads, and online advertising encourages people to tweet what’s boring, with the promise that Vitamin Water will “make it brilliant.” (Check out some pictures from the campaign.)

You can head on over to Twitter to see what people have been tweeting @vitaminwater. Click to view the conversations, and you’ll see the company’s individualized responses to fans. One Twitter user posts, for example, “Team meetings at work are way boring,” which elicits this response and image from Vitamin Water:

A bit juvenile and over the top? Well, yeah, but when was the last time you received such a personalized message from a major social media marketing campaign?

Brand Voice via Social Media Marketing

Of course, this brings us to the brand’s voice. If you scroll through the #MakeBoringBrilliant Twitter stream, you’ll notice that the average Twitter user that engages with this campaign is junior high/high school age. What bores them? Math class, the cafeteria, exams, etc.

Vitamin Water isn’t trying to be anything that they’re not. They fully embrace their demographic and have no qualms about the fact that a younger, less mature crowd is their target audience. (Quite similar to K-Mart’s #ShipMyPants campaign.)

A Full Multimedia Experience

Lastly, the Vitamin Water campaign is more than just a social media marketing campaign. Earlier this month, Vitamin Water put on a concert in Boring, Oregon, featuring top performers B.o.B, Matt & Kim, and Santigold. The entire event was broadcast live by Fuse TV.

In addition to the live event, Vitamin Water has produced a series of commercials that show the boring-to-brilliant transformation. These commercials, which show people in a waiting room and a plane full of delayed passengers, allegedly feature “real people” in real situations. Real or not, the commercials are certainly memorable and deliver the brand’s message!

What’s your take on the #MakeBoringBrilliant campaign? Solid branding? Or does the campaign leave something to be desired? Weigh in below!

Ben Richardson is a writer based in Nashville, TN. While he loves
writing on a variety of subjects, he's our go-to on all things related
to branding and the creative aspects of content marketing. Follow him
on Twitter!